Letter: Swedish PM’s Chinatown quip at odds with the data

Letter to the FT (September 7, 2022) If Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson were familiar with crime statistics by immigrant groups, she would not take the view that her country would be better off without its Chinatowns (“Sweden playground shooting shapes voter concerns”, Report, September 3). The Danes have collected (and published) data on criminality by immigrant groups. A 2016 study by the Danish national statistical office shows that first generation Chinese immigrants have criminality rates more than a quarter below the Danish average. Based on patterns for other East Asian immigrant groups and in other geographies, criminality rates will fall to less than half the level for the Danish population as a whole, for second generation Chinese immigrants. This phenomenon holds in Sweden as well. Not all immigration is equal. Kai L Chan Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Article as it appeared online. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2022. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.

Tough on crime just for the poor

Letter to the Toronto Star (Sunday, April 10, 2010) Tough on crime just for the poor Re:  Former MP Rahim Jaffer connected to conman, April 8 I was intrigued to read that the Crown in Rahim Jaffer's court case very generously offered the former MP a favourable plea bargain.  When I was 17 years old growing up in poverty and arrested as a young offender, the Crown sought six month's closed custody (i.e. jail time) for a school fight I got into. I had to aggressively fight against the Crown and won a favourable ruling (probation with no incarceration) from the judge who presided over my case.  Eighteen years later I am an alumnus of University of Toronto and Princeton University.  I wonder what path my life would have taken had I spent six months in jail.  Seems to me that the tough on crime model only applies to people from lesser backgrounds. Kai Chan, New York http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/793115--tough-on-crime-just-for-the-poor © Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2010

What to do: young offenders

The Globe & Mail: Letters to the editor (March 18, 2010) What to do: young offenders I was arrested twice as a young offender (Tory Bill Proposes Publicizing Names Of Violent Young Offenders – March 17), so I read carefully the proposed changes to the legislation.  For the most part, harsh sentences do not deter crime and actually work against rehabilitating offenders.  My brief time in incarceration only ensconced me more deeply in the criminal culture: While in detention, I befriended hardened offenders.  Most of the people I met in juvenile detention were good persons, who just happened to come from unfortunate backgrounds (poverty, dysfunctional families etc.). I always wonder how much talent our country is wasting by not making these young offenders do something productive with their lives (e.g. getting them involved in sports/arts/culture), rather than leaving them to wither in detention. I eventually went on to get a PhD at Princeton after graduating from the University of Toronto.  Teenage years are rough for everyone. K.L. Chan, New York http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/march-18-letters-to-the-editor/article1503730/ © Copyright 2010 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.  All Rights Reserved.